Norwood Promotional Products Implementing Integrated Captaris RightFax

FoIP solution to centralize, automate order processing

Highlights - Leading supplier selects Captaris(R) RightFax(R) Fax over IP for ease of administration and superior integrations with technologies, including offerings from Cisco, Microsoft, VMWare, Kofax, Oracle

- RightFax supports IP and virtualized environment strategies projected to return cost-savings, enhanced customer service

BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 2 -- Captaris, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAPA) , a leading provider of software products that automate document-centric processes today announced Norwood Promotional Products, a supplier of imprinted promotional products and long-time Captaris(R) RightFax(R) user, is now extending integrated Fax over IP functionality across its U.S. locations for consolidated and automated management of business orders.

"We chose RightFax Fax over IP for its multi-vendor support for third party applications and ease of administration," said Larry Chisholm, IT Operations Manager for Norwood. "RightFax integrates more effectively than other solutions ... and -- for initial installation -- it honestly took me about two hours to get Fax over IP set up and ready to go."

Founded in 1989, Norwood employs more than 2,500 personnel in locations across the U.S., Canada and China. It markets close to 4,300 promotional products, ranging from calendars and pens, to golf gear and Koozie(R) soda can insulators. Since each Norwood location handles different products, "at any time, one site is always on a busy season," Chisholm noted. Each site manages product fulfillment via email and fax, amounting to more than 100,000 faxed pages per year of orders and order clarifications, including communication to verify logo placement or other details. Previously, Norwood sites also used a variety of faxing methods.

"Norwood is a conglomeration of companies due to several acquisitions," said Mel Hirtzel, Director of IT Operations for Norwood. "As a result, every site had its own faxing system; but, several -- including the headquarters in Indianapolis -- used RightFax." Users rely on RightFax Least Cost Routing and integration with Microsoft Exchange for sending and receiving faxes directly from their Outlook inboxes.

When Norwood investigated migrating from frame- to MPLS- (multi-protocol label switching) based services, managers recognized the opportunity to consolidate and simplify network and equipment management by leveraging IP communications. The company developed a business integration project to direct all incoming orders to the largest data center via one toll-free fax number. The new process calls for orders to be received regionally and routed via VoIP gateways to the centralized RightFax Fax over IP server in a data center in San Antonio, where Kofax back office document capture software extracts data via OCR to drop into Norwood's Oracle PeopleSoft ERP solution. "The integration will help us consolidate services and lower costs by not having dedicated faxing boards and systems at every single site," Chisholm said.

While other FoIP providers lack back-end network integration options, RightFax leads the industry in certified, time-tested integration with VoIP, MFP, email, ERP and other enterprise applications. Combined with enhanced features, RightFax provides an on-ramp to the latest IP technologies and strategies. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the location where Norwood began implementation, experienced a flood resulting in 10 feet of water in the building. While the disaster delayed the project, past performance and extensive testing for RightFax in an IP environment support projected advantages and benefits.

Flexibility

RightFax supports direct connection via the T.38 FoIP standard to VoIP solutions and gateways. Norwood will leverage its MPLS network to route calls through a Cisco 3845 router, configured with an H.323 gateway for faxing. Compared to previous processes, Chisholm noted, "We realized there was a lot of flexibility available using RightFax Fax over IP, and that made the project decision for us."

Consolidation

RightFax integrations and functionality support Norwood's company strategy for consolidating services with IP and virtualized technologies. RightFax supports VMWare installation and enabled the company to eliminate a number of fax machines. "Virtual machines are such a big component of the project for disaster recovery," Chisholm said. "When we conducted FoIP testing, we did a v-motion (migrating a machine from one server to another) and took a look at the faxes: they didn't skip a beat."

For added redundancy, RightFax supports Microsoft clustering and collectives via Captaris Shared Services. Norwood can also administer fax communications from a central location, locally or remotely.

Collaboration

Like many organizations, Norwood relies on several enterprise applications for working across multiple locations. RightFax Fax over IP provides the most enhanced features and integrations for automated, real-time collaboration. Although installation is fresh, Norwood is using Microsoft(R) Office SharePoint(R) Server to facilitate collaboration. The RightFax(R) Connector for Microsoft(R) Office SharePoint(R) Server 2007, available from Captaris, enables SharePoint users to automatically import and populate configured SharePoint libraries with documents sent from MFPs, scanners and fax.

Norwood projects substantial cost-savings and service enhancements resulting from centralized, automated processing of orders. "We expect to cut down on hiring of temporary full time workers," Hirtzel said. "And, the initiative will help us return orders to customers more quickly ... productivity all comes back to customer satisfaction and providing a positive experience." Norwood is implementing the integrated RightFax solution with help from Dynamic Solutions Group, a Minnesota-based service provider specializing in fax automation.

About Captaris, Inc.

Captaris, Inc. is a leading provider of software products that automate document-centric business processes. Captaris specializes in document capture, recognition, routing, workflow and delivery. Captaris integrated solutions provide interoperability with leading line of business applications and technology platforms. Captaris products include RightFax, Captaris Workflow, Alchemy, FaxPress, DOKuStar, RecoStar, and Single Click Entry which are distributed through a global network of leading technology partners. Captaris customers include the entire Fortune 100 and the majority of Global 2000 companies. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Captaris was founded in 1982 and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol CAPA. http://www.captaris.com/.

(C)2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form by any means without the written permission of Captaris. The following are registered trademarks and trademarks of Captaris Inc. and its subsidiaries: Captaris, the Captaris logo, Alchemy(R), Captaris WorkflowTM, RightDocsTM, RightFax(R), RightFlowTM and RightStarTM in the US and/or other jurisdictions. FaxPressTM is a registered trademark of Castelle. RecoStar, DOKuStar, DOKuStar Capture Suite, Single Click Entry, and Invoice CENTER are registered trademarks and trademarks of Captaris Document Technologies GmbH. All other brand names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.